 So I'm going to start this off with a classic philosophical question. Do we really need more fonts? And so recently we launched Future Fonts, which is a platform for selling in progress typefaces. And so this kind of, we kind of started to change this question into do we really need more fonts that are incomplete and probably have mistakes? And so we really started the question whether or not what we're doing is a good thing to add to the industry. Is it going to just add a lot of noise to an already overcrowded type industry? Should we be putting this out there? And this is like all before we even launched. Just kind of going into this anxiety feedback loop. And I think that any creative kind of goes through this when you're putting yourself out there and making yourself a little bit, a little vulnerable. And it's just really, really scary to release any kind of new creative project. And every time I release a new typeface, I'm always terrified that somebody's going to notice my horrible spacing and start an angry Twitter mob. And my career is going to be over and I'm going to have to try to figure out something else to do with my time. And, yeah, and so I think that when you get pushed back and you really start to get scared, you end up taking less risks and you tend to stay in your safe zone a little too much. The problem, like Traff said, was the problem with being scared is that you stay in your safe zone. And as creatives, it's really important to take risks because by taking risks, growth happens faster. And when you take risks and try something new, it's super scary, but, and the problem is it's probably prone to more mistakes. So with Future Fonts, we wanted to try to create a safe place for mistakes to happen and to try new things, experiment, explore. And I mean, the idea actually came, Traff, we were working on this brand typeface called Kicker and it was for Design Week Portland. And six years later, we hadn't agreed with them that we could release it on our own and sell it. And six years later, we still hadn't released the typeface. We didn't feel like it was quite ready for a commercial release, whatever that really means. In the meantime, we had launched three different versions of the websites with numerous updates and fixes and tweaks. So it kind of sparked the idea and we were just going to do it on our own personal website as like a lab kind of thing. And then we started asking friends in the industry and seeing if they thought this was kind of a useful, positive thing for the community. And so as we were making this, we kind of were like keeping a bunch of different ideas in our mind and there were some like interesting other conclusions that we kind of realized like after seeing this out in the wild that are really important to creating that safe place where you can take those risks and fail in a safe way. The first thing is that mistakes do not necessarily imply carelessness. And so with every project that we take on, we put all of our effort into it, all of our heart and we really, really want to do the right thing and make great work. But we make a lot of mistakes. Like we're all human and mistakes are just going to happen. And even if you're aware of them, like we're aware of a lot of mistakes in our work and but because of priorities of maybe its budget or timing or maybe the amount of effort that's required to go in and make those changes to make it perfect, your priorities might not lie enough. But the important thing is that just as you're viewing work or as you're putting work out there, be okay with making a mistake and it doesn't mean that you're necessarily careless. And really early on we realize that intent is everything. And if we're on future fronts like having this place where we're selling tight faces that have mistakes and have problems, we realized that it was important that people knew what they were getting and that it had to be transparent, the state of the tight faces and that when it had problems, people knew about them or if there were certain parts of the project that needed more work or what you were intending for the final character set or whatever it is, it's important that people know about those and that they're not surprised when they purchase a license and load it up and there's something wrong with it or there's something missing. And so it's and I think that the interesting thing that's happened is that when you that we've noticed is that when you make yourself a little vulnerable like this and like you're transparent and honest, I think people start to realize that there's a real person behind these tight faces that are making their toiling away and struggling and trying to make this this beautiful tight face and and I think that people want to help and and when we were really kind of scared of like a lot of a lot of trolls and a lot of like unconstructive feedback and and it seems like people want to help and they're they're excited to help and and point out the ways that it could be better and and to help you get there and so I think there's an interesting connection between the the the creators and the users when you're transparent about things and a lot of type design users are designers themselves graphic designers and using typefaces and so exposing the creative process and what you're thinking they can understand and they can work with it and it might make the whole process a little more approachable and less intimidating so we spent a lot of time thinking about how do we make this transparent not overwhelming for both the the type designer and the graphic designer and how do we kind of make it like a gap a bridge that gaps the the distance between the two and so we're like well we can make it like how do we make it scannable so it's not overwhelming taking cues from GitHub and Kickstarter and the current landscapes of UI in terms that people are using so it doesn't feel intimidating and can actually be a positive to help educate users designers how to use typefaces and what goes into what what designers are thinking about when they create the typeface and putting a little more of their own personal voice into the project so both thinking of the type designer how they would express it and like progress bars visual icons stuff like that but also for the graphic designers using the typefaces not hiding the fact that these are works in progress celebrating making it clear on the homepage even on the check out like an opt inbox who loves an opt inbox no one but just like making sure they understand this typeface is a work in progress and like celebrating some of the cues that Instagram people are posting work works in progress and it's celebrated and a lot of the times me included I'm like I would love to use that for a project so kind of like taking the energy that's going on today and making it transparent making it that connection and starting the conversation between the users and the type designers so another thing I think that's really important to keep in mind as you're working on anything creative is to make sure that you know your audience so recently there was an interesting quick Twitter conversation going on the question was what's something that should be obvious but your profession seems to misunderstand and Kyber now responded by saying you're not designing for other designers and then Chris ours be response to that taking a step further you're not designing typefaces for other typeface designers and so I'm definitely guilty of this and a lot of my anxiety in releasing typefaces I think comes because I'm worrying about the wrong people like I want to make the the peers in the industry and all my friends I want I don't want to disappoint them and I know that the type designers are looking at things with really detailed eyes and they're they're noticing the flaws in that stuff but at the end of the day I think we need to remember like who we're designing for and try to make sure that we're valuing their goals like those are the goals that we should be trying to solve like I think there's a lot of overlap there like you should definitely be I think it's you we all want to be doing good work and and I think that thinking about what other type designers are thinking about is important and it helps push you and helps push the industry forward but make sure you're not losing sight of the fact that that they're probably not going to be the ones that are using your typefaces the other area a lot of anxiety comes from for us is let's stop releasing these funds like they're cast in metal that they're super precious that we can't fix them on the fly we grew up or in the digital age and use web all the time and one of the things I love about the web is if there's a spelling mistake if you want to switch out the color you can do it and the internet makes that really possible and so fonts are software and so start taking cues from some of the software and industries like launching it's called an MVP the most valuable products and then strategically launching additional features and and it's also an opportunity to highlight those features and educate the designer on how to best use the typeface where I think when you launch it all at once it can be overwhelming to use and they might not understand or even know what features are available to them because so many things are highlighted yeah so kind of just shortening that loop and remembering oh and and using it as an opportunity as another opportunity to market the typeface I think has been very valuable in releasing it in stages the other question that we had is what does finished even mean who is determining this do we have to determine it as an industry can it be foundry base can it be on the individual typeface like I guess we kind of defined it as a usable something usable for the designer but that could vary and so kind of questioning like what is this big character set that we're all striving for what is the exact space like does it have to be perfect can we launch it sooner can we change this definition a little bit so full full disclosure I really just put this slide in here because I think it looks amazing set in Gooper and I hope that he makes a t-shirt out of this maybe with those iron on felt letters or something like that but seriously as we're trying to create this this creative community it's important that we as members in it whether it's on future funds or on Twitter or on Instagram when somebody's putting their work out there and it then maybe it's finished or maybe it's a work in progress let's make sure that the discussion around it is is constructive and so if you see problems with it that's great and help them get better and and at the end of the day remember that we're all part of that same community trying to help each other get better and that we're going to grow a lot faster for helping each other get better rather than tearing them down and and I think that it's also important to realize that they may that you might not fully understand going back to that intent like try to understand what then their intent and their goals are with the project and to try to help them get to those rather than what you think is a great typeface or a great project and and I think that's really important as we try to reach out and broaden the broadened the industry a little bit and bring in different view points that there are there's more than one way to create a great typeface or a great website or a great whatever it is that you're making so back to the original question do we really need more funds that are incomplete and probably have mistakes need is a loaded word and in this current world political landscape I don't know but I do think that these type faces have value and the hope is that by taking risks and creating environment that allows for creative explorations that interesting things will happen that designers will grow new designers will come there will be new voices people be excited about type design and that it will help the industry grow as a whole and hopefully quicker and we're already starting to see some cool things I mean they're not things that aren't happening elsewhere but they're just interesting examples of type design happening today or conversations that we've that have come up so Chi one of our partner in future funds James Edmondson created this typeface Chi he runs oh no type and I think it's a really interesting example of variable font because it's not only changing the way it and making that having micro controls of that but as you change the typeface it's actually changing the style and the design of the typeface and so it makes it really customizable on how you want to express your brand but still feels coherent and in the similar family and so I think it's a really and I think graphic designers are really excited about it and then we've also been doing like animation promos and so they're starting to realize that variable fonts can also be a way to promote to do animations on the web and in marketing materials but I think the style using variable fonts to change the style was an interesting use of variable fonts Noster by Lucas Decra also I think this is interesting because he challenges what's normally defined as a typeface family they're both mono space but wildly contrasting styles but somehow they match and they fit together so I think by just like challenging some of the existing terms is interesting as well and so ways to challenge technology I think is interesting ways to challenge current existing terms and norms in the type industry I think is interesting in this experimental model and I think we're also seeing typefaces that have really interesting designs because I think typefaces that take a really long time to release might be different styles than typefaces that have quicker releases and might tap into design trends that are happening at quicker now and so I think there's value in that and we're seeing a lot of really interesting designs that I think graphic designers are excited to use as branding and artwork. So to recap and also squeeze in a few more future funds that we love make sure you scare yourself take some risk listen to those in the community around you you don't have to do what they say but just you know listen consider it and figure out how you want to react to it make sure you're having a little fun not everything has to be solving some some serious and crazy need although there's plenty of room for that still get a little bizarre and hopefully you'll get somewhere unexpected and grow as a designer and help push the industry forward. Thanks and if you and if you want to follow along we're like the launching new designers and new typefaces and updates on Instagram that's kind of where and there's posters outside and stickers too.